Page ^ Daily Mail, Friday, August 23, 2019
Could Prue finally
rescue patients
from the horrors
of hospital food?
Depressing proof ‘home cooked’
does NOT make hospital
food any easier to stomach
As PM hires her to raise standards after 6 deaths...
PRUE Leith has been drafted in
by the Prime Minister to help
end the hospital food scandal.
The Bake Off judge will front a
‘root and branch’ review setting
strict national standards following
the deaths of six patients who had
eaten NHS sandwiches and salads.
Boris Johnson last night vowed to
ensure patients are served ‘nutritional,
tasty and fresh meals’, eliminate junk
food and increase in-house catering.
Some hospitals spend as little as £2 a
day on feeding each patient and do not
even have a kitchen – shipping in frozen
meals produced up to 650 miles away.
Mr Johnson said last night: ‘Guaran-
teeing hospitals serve nutritional, tasty
and fresh meals will not only aid patient
recovery, but also fuel staff and visitors
as they care for loved ones and the vul-
nerable. Our NHS has led the way since
the day it was formed. This review will
ensure it remains the standard-bearer
for healthy choices.’
The shocking state of hospital food
was thrown into the spotlight earlier
this year when six patients died from
listeria contracted after eating hospital
sandwiches and salads.
The review will aim to drive up quality
by examining how NHS Trusts can
bring catering in-house, and how new
systems could monitor food safety.
It aims to encourage the use of fresh,
seasonal and local ingredients in the
...or have too many celebrity
cooks already spoiled broth?
MISS Leith is not the first (^) By Xantha Leatham
celebrity to be brought in to
improve hospital food.
Ex-MasterChef host Loyd
Grossman was appointed in 2000
to run the £40million Better Hos-
pital Food Programme.
He assembled a ‘magnificent
seven’ of chefs, among them
luminaries of some of London’s
most celebrated restaurants
including The Ivy and The Savoy,
to bring up standards.
They devised 43 new recipes
containing delicacies ranging
from mung beans to banana bru-
lee – but many patients stuck
with the traditional hospital
options instead.
Airedale General Hospital in
West Yorkshire said the experi-
ment with macaroni, smoked
haddock and herbs on its wards
failed because of patients’
adverse reactions.
A spokesman said: ‘Perhaps
olive oil mash is not something
that appeals when you are under
the weather.’
In 1995, chef Albert Roux
launched nutritional guidelines
for hospital catering – which
were largely ignored. Television
chef Heston Blumenthal also
signed up to a project to improve
NHS meals in 2010, and recom-
mended changing the smells and
lighting experienced by patients
as they eat.
He devised the idea of using
kelp – or seaweed – to make food
more flavoursome without using
additional salt.
But a report in 2013 revealed
that celebrity chefs, food experts
and 20 years of reviews, inquiries
and initiatives costing more than
£54million had failed to improve
hospital food.
From Tuesday’s Daily Mail
‘It should help not
hinder recovery ’
By Eleanor Hayward
Health Reporter
Deliberating and cogitating: Grossman Failed bid: Blumenthal
Mission to improve meals: Prue Leith
Unappetising: Photos of hospital meals sent in by Daily Mail readers
highlight, a little pleasure and
comfort, and it should help, not
hinder, the patient’s recovery.’
Some patients have described
their meals as ‘pigswill’ and ‘unfit
for dogs’, according to the Cam-
paign for Better Hospital Food.
Many new hospitals have been
built without kitchens, meaning
around half of the NHS’s hot food
is bought in as ready meals.
Hospitals also rely on pre-pack-
aged sandwiches and salads, but
these are particularly susceptible
to food poisoning and were
responsible for the six deaths ear-
lier this year. The source of the
outbreak was identified as Staf-
fordshire-based supplier Good
Food Chain, and the company’s
products were withdrawn from 43
NHS trusts on May 25.
Cases of listeria were reported in
eight hospitals around the coun-
try, from Manchester to Sussex.
Victims are believed to include
ex-nurse Beverley Sowah, 57, and
retired chemist Enid Heap, 84.
The heartbroken family of 52-
year-old businessman Ian Hitch-
cock, from Derbyshire, demanded
to know: ‘How could an NHS
sandwich kill him?’
The listeria scandal was followed
by revelations that patients are
eating hospital food cooked up to
a year earlier in a factory. And ear-
lier this week a snapshot survey by
the Daily Mail – with readers send-
ing in pictures of hospital meals –
found many were failing to provide
basic nutrition standards.
The review is the latest in a line
of Government promises to
improve hospital food. Critics
warned millions of pounds of
investment was needed to back
up any changes recommended.
Liberal Democrat Baroness
Judith Jolly said: ‘Healthy eating
campaigns have failed before due
to a lack of support and invest-
ment from the Government. A
celebrity face, quite frankly, sim-
ply doesn’t cut it.’
Patricia Marquis, of the Royal
College of Nursing, said: ‘You don’t
need a celebrity chef to tell you
hospital food needs an overhaul.
‘Our expectations for this review
go beyond half-baked schemes no
matter how noble. This won’t
make a lasting impact without a
full-scale investment in the health
and care system.’
The review will look at hospitals
that currently have high food
standards to see what other NHS
trusts can learn from them. It will
speak to hospital caterers, patient
groups, suppliers and kitchen staff
- as well as national bodies such as
the Soil Association and National
Caterers Association to look at
how Trusts can benefit more from
local and fresh produce.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock
said: ‘I’m determined patients
enjoy the best, most delicious
and nutritious food to help
them recover. I have seen first-
hand how using fresh, locally-
sourced ingredients and cooking
from scratch have improved the
quality of their meals.’
Comment – Page 16
more than 140 million meals served to
patients across the country each year.
A report containing a series of recom-
mendations is expected in January.
Health campaigners welcomed the
announcement but warned ‘a celebrity
face doesn’t cut it’ and that major
investment was needed following years
of failed attempts at reform.
The review will be chaired by Philip
Shelley, former head of the Hospital
Caterers Association. Miss Leith, 79,
has been appointed as an adviser.
The chef and TV presenter said: ‘Mil-
lions of pounds are wasted in hospitals
with food ending up in the bin, unpalat-
able food being the main complaint. I’m
delighted that at long last Downing
Street and the Department of Health
have decided to do something about it.
‘A hospital meal should be a small